We study corporate investments around national elections in India. Investment rates drop by a nonsignificant 2.2% for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in election years. The decrease is significantly larger for private firms, which record an investment drop of 7.4%. The decrease in investment for...

We study the influence of policy uncertainty on the moral behavior of firms. When facing uncertainty, managers perceive various socioeconomic obstacles as more severe and disruptive to their business. Using data from policy uncertainty spouts in 93 countries, we document that some firms engage...

Using a sample of comparable public listed and private firms from nine European countries, we show that public firms reduce their investments by about 50% more than private firms in periods of elevated policy uncertainty. We find suggestive evidence that this can be explained by public firms'...